“General Rules for Suffixes”

Contraction of Double-Vowel Combinations

     When the final vowel of a stem is the same as the first letter of a suffix, the resulting double-vowel combination contracts to a long sound of the same vowel.

• ovis, stem ovi-, + -īle = ovīle (iī becomes ī)

• silva, stem silvā-, + -ānus = Silvānus (āā becomes ā)

     When the letter i at the beginning of a suffix contracts with a stem vowel to form i, and the resulting i appears immediately after another i, that double-vowel combination contracts to ī.  In modern Latin words, however, the double i combination usually does not undergo contraction.

• Vesuvius, stem Vesuvio- + -īnus = Vesuvīnus (ioī becomes iī, iī becomes ī)

• Galaxiās, stem Galaxiā-, + -īdae = Galaxiīdae (modern Latin word; iāī becomes iī)

     When the final vowel of a stem is not the same as the first letter of the suffix, the resulting double-vowel combination often contracts to a long sound of the second letter (although some inflectional forms, for various reasons, habitually keep the first letter, which may be long or short).

• amāre, stem amā- + -ō = amō (āō becomes ō)

• dare, stem da- + -ō = dō (aō becomes ō)

• audīre, stem audī- + -ō = audiō (ī does not disappear, but appears as i)

• rēs, stem rē- + -ālis = reālis (ē does not disappear, but appears as e)

Subsections

Primary and Secondary Suffixes

1. Primary Suffixes
2. Secondary Suffixes

Vowel Changes

1. Contraction of Double-Vowel Combinations
2. Monosyllabic Stems

Rēgulae Generālēs Suffīxōrum | Pāginae Latīnitātis | DIĒS GAUDIĪ

© 2007 Ian Andreas Miller.  All rights reserved.  Those statements refer to all of the original content on this page.